Collision: Book Four in the Secret World Chronicle - eARC

by Mercedes Lackey

  “Trina’s ahead of you, at a saucer in a side-hanger. It’s a medium sized one, there should be room for all of you and anyone else you gather up. If we can get them all out of here we should have about a dozen saucers of evacuees. Come on people, move it!”

  “You heard witch girl. We move, now!” The group didn’t need any more encouragement than that; everyone began to run, or limp, in the direction of the saucer. Natalya dropped back long enough to pick up one of the Chinese military leaders bodily; his leg was a bloodied mess, and he was barely up to her chest in height, no burden at all to her to carry. He was in too much pain to protest. She began to run, following as closely behind Bulwark as she could, to take advantage of the shield for herself and her “passenger.”

  * * *

  The walls remained dark, as if the two great minds sat in quiet conference. They finally flared to life and separated, one ribbon next to Mercurye and one next to Ramona. “That looks like a yes to me, Vic,” Ramona said. She let out a long breath and focused on the design on the HUD, flexing her fingers.

  “Follow the cursor. You can do this.”

  “Right. I can do this.” And if I can’t, then I go down trying.

  There was no sign of the protections that Vickie had called “Wards and Shields,” things she had insisted were absolutely necessary the last time. Ramona had the feeling this was Vickie’s equivalent of walking a high-wire without a net, and she tried to keep every bit of her attention on the things Vickie was showing her how to trace in the air. As before, sometimes what she traced looked like a diagram, sometimes like a equation. “You have to want this. You have to want this desperately, people,” Vickie said, her voice tense with urgency. “I am not going to pull any punches here. I’m pretty certain that if we can’t get you out inside of Ramona and Rick, we are not going to get you out at all. I’m not sure the nearest fallout shelter is going to survive. The Thulians have wrecked the city between you and Trina, but Raina and Lyra have a family vehicle in a pretty secure place and they told me, that hell or high water, they are going to wait for you.”

  The walls quivered, then went completely dark as the blue currents lifted from the wall and encircled them both. Rick had his eyes squeezed tightly shut; Ramona hoped he was concentrating on wanting his passenger very hard indeed.

  As for herself, well…she did her best to get her terror to fuel the desire to get her familiar “tenant” back in the little efficiency apartment he’d once had in her head.

  She felt the hair on the back of her neck rising involuntarily, and something like a charge building in the air, just before a lightning strike. Just like the last time. The tension began to ratchet up, and along with it…the sound of not-so-distant thunder. The Thulians were getting nearer. Just when she was ready to scream, the mage finally barked the word “Fiat!” and—

  —Thank God, said Tesla in her head, as Rick’s eyes snapped open and his mouth formed a little “o.”

  “Time to go! Rick, pick her up! RUN!”

  She found herself scooped up in Mercurye’s arms, as she had been that long-ago day when he ran her out to the Mountain. She ducked her head and made herself as small as possible, wishing it were also possible to shed some of the pounds and pounds of metal she had absorbed along the way. But he didn’t seem to notice the extra weight.

  But Miss Ferrari! Tesla wailed, as they got another glimpse of the hideous destruction the Thulians were wreaking on Metis, When we get free—where are we to go?

  “Vix, Telsa wants to know what you intend to—”

  “Worry about what we download them into when you get the hell out of there intact!” Vickie interrupted. “Now RUN!”

  Rick ran like a man possessed. They had no time left; the Thulians had reached the part of the city they were in, the Death Spheres above only pausing their thermite jets long enough for the armored troopers on the ground to sweep through any survivors. When Ramona dared to open her eyes, lifting her head from Rick’s chest…she was confronted with snapshots of carnage. Several troopers lining Metisian men and women up against a wall to execute them. Explosions as entire buildings were ripped asunder by actinic energy beams. In a quick flash, she watched as a Robo Eagle crashed through the glass dome ceiling of a building, and emerge with the bleeding forms of two people in its talons, screeching as it lifted back into the sky. It was almost too much to bear; memories of the Invasion sprang fresh into her mind, a rising panic filling her. She tucked her head against Rick’s chest again; he was like a machine, his legs pumping up and down, propelling them through the devastation and towards safety.

  Following her instructions…with fire raging around them, and hell falling from the skies…Rick put on more speed and ran. He dodged falling debris, blurred past armored troopers, and just when Ramona was certain there was nowhere else to go, dashed into a courtyard—

  —and there it was. A little saucer, about the size of two minivans put together, hovering just off the ground with the ramp down. Rick didn’t hesitate for a second, he dashed inside; Raina didn’t pause either, the saucer shot skyward with the ramp still down, and only Rick immediately leaping sideways into the body of the saucer kept them from tumbling down the same ramp they’d come up.

  “Stealthing now!” Raina cried, as the ramp finally snapped shut; the entire saucer shuddered hard, the lights dimmed and then came up again. “We’re hit!”

  Ramona’s heart was in her mouth. We’re going to die—

  “Stealth on!” exclaimed Lyra. The lights dimmed again, and the saucer made a whining sound, but there were no other ominous signs of impending doom.

  Which could only mean—

  They were safe. Unbelievably, they were safe. And going home.

  * * *

  Bella thought she had never seen anything as welcome as that Metisian saucer, hovering with the gangway an inch off the ground. There were other saucers in the air now—not just evacuees, but some Metisians evidently possessed spines and brains; these were all smaller saucers, but they seemed to be equipped with TDRs, and their pilots (or gunners) were using them to good effect. The giant saucer that had brought them all here was toast, however. With a sense of sick horror she saw it about five hundred yards away, sticking up out of the ground at a slant, its silver all blackened and tarnished and marred with blast holes. It looked as if it had gotten about a hundred yards up and had been shot down. It was just pure luck it had crashed into an open space and not into buildings or what passed for a hanger.

  But she knew she had to put her own feelings on hold for now. As she had told Saviour, no one had the luxury of emotion until after they were safe.

  She dropped back, to make sure everyone made it in. It seemed impossible that she and Bulwark—who now cradled the German delegate in his powerful arms—had made it through that gauntlet of horror unscathed. It was a good thing she did, she spotted the Canadian general faltering and limping, about half a block back from the tail of their group; she sprinted back to him, draped his arm over her neck, and hauled him along in time to be right on the heels of the last one up the gangway.

  Trina must have had some sort of camera watching; the gangway started to rise as soon as Bella got both feet on it, and the saucer started rising too. Trina wasn’t being gentle, either, the momentum from the gangway practically propelled her into the crowd, and the hatch snapped shut.

  Once inside, however, there was no sign that they were moving until she glanced up at the several viewscreens visible from where she stood, letting the Canadian gently down onto the floor.

  Metis looked like a scene out a dystopian nightmare; a glimpse into hell, maybe. There were hundreds upon hundreds of Death Spheres. The entire outer two rings of the city had been completely destroyed; fires still burned nearly everywhere, but no buildings were standing in those sections of the city. Any time a spot of resistance rose up, in the form of a defensive battery of Tesla Death Rays or any other sort of fire, it was immediately beset and destroyed by a swarm of Death Spheres. They
didn’t seem to care how many casualties they were taking; formations of the deadly orbs whizzed through the air, raining burning thermite and energy blasts into the city below. Far in the distance, she saw the massive mechanical dragon that had escaped Ultima Thule; it was stomping through the city, ahead of a line of Death Spheres, completely impervious to any TDR fire that was directed at it. Wherever it went, death and destruction followed. With sick feeling of familiarity, it reminded her of a Japanese monster movie brought to life. Instead of a man in a rubber suit, this monstrosity was real, ending lives with every movement and blast of fire or energy from its head.

  Bella knelt beside the Canadian, and laid her hand on his forehead, healing him without taking her attention from the screens. All over what was left of the city, saucers were arcing up—and vanishing. For a moment she wondered frantically if these Thulians had some new form of weapon that utterly obliterated their targets—but then, as she watched three Death Spheres converge on a spot where a saucer had been and mill around frantically, she realized that it was only the Metisian stealth-power, which evidently the Thulians couldn’t crack.

  The lights in their saucer dimmed as Trina kicked their vehicle into stealth mode, and then the view tilted alarmingly, although the deck stayed seemingly level. “We’re going for altitude,” the girl called out, and not only did the view tilt, but the carnage receded into the distance at an incredible rate.

  “Overwatch: open Vix,” Bella muttered quietly.

  “Vix go.”

  “Ramona and Merc?”

  “Away, with cargo. Please do not ask me how I did that, I’d rather not think about how many chances I took.”

  “Have you updated home base?” Not that HQ could have done anything…but they needed to be told.

  “Was awaiting permission. Doing so now. Activate Spin Doctor?”

  “Might as well,” Bella sighed. At least this was one disaster ECHO couldn’t be blamed for.

  But how CCCP was going to take the loss of Molotok, and the betrayal of Worker’s Champion…

  She glanced over at Red Saviour, who was slouched despondently in one of the saucer seating areas. I’m going to have a lot of work to do.

  You couldn’t tell from in here, but the saucer put on a huge boost of speed, and accelerated up into the stratosphere. The carnage below vanished into a white and black blot with flashes in it, and then disappeared under a layer of cloud as they moved even higher. Under other circumstances, she’d have watched the viewscreens and their panorama of near-space and the curve of the Earth hungrily, as she had on the trip in. It really was beautiful; perfect, even. Up here, you were so far away from all of the death, the misery, the loss.

  But all around her she felt defeat, despair, grief and loss. She dropped her gaze to the other folks sharing the saucer. And aside from Gairdner—who she couldn’t read anyway—there was not one person here who was not sagging in hopelessness. Of the forty or so delegates and aides that had arrived in Metis, there were only eighteen left—unless somehow, someone had escaped in other saucers.

  Except for Trina, there was not a single person in this vehicle that was unscathed. Scorches, cuts and bruises at the least, broken bones and serious wounds at the worst. But it wasn’t the physical injuries that bothered her; it was the despair. It pressed down on everyone like a leaden weight. The Metisians were the worst; she felt they had given up entirely, and were just looking for an excuse to die—but the rest were nearly as despondent.

  It was in their faces, the slack muscles, the complete lack of expression—these were Metisians and military men, after all, who were expected to repress at least any external signs of their emotions. It was in their body-language, how they slumped in their seats, or lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. Some were in shock, but others clearly had descended into the stage of completely giving up all hope.

  And when she considered what they had just lost…she stared into the abyss and considered plunging into it herself. After all, what did they have left? Without Metis, without Metisian backing…how could they ever beat back this entire new wave of Thulians? They didn’t know where this lot had come from! They were all back to square one, but this time, their forces had been almost obliterated. Had the Thulians just been toying with them all this time? Where had the new force come from?

  Their best commander…was gone. That might be the real death-blow. How could they hope to do anything without Arthur Chang? What did that leave them with? Herself? She felt torn between despair and sheer panic at the mere idea.

  She remembered what Sera had described: the world dying in fire, going down under the boots of the enemy, to end in death and enslavement. And now…despite everything they had done, despite throwing everything they had at the enemy, they were still going down.

  …like hell we are.

  She had no idea where it came from, that little spark of defiance, like Hope in Pandora’s Box, but suddenly it flared up, then caught fire, and burned with a growing anger.

  “Vix,” she said out loud. “Trina. Give me wide open freqs. Full broadcast, unscrambled, to everyone you can reach. I don’t care if the fucking Kriegers can hear me, hell, I want them to hear me!”

  “You got it, boss,” Vickie replied immediately, as Trina gave her a startled look, but made some motions on her control board that Bella assumed gave her broadcast ability.

  “Listen up, people,” she said, her voice harsh with mixed emotions. “This is ECHO CEO Belladonna Blue.”

  Gairdner gave her a startled look, but didn’t make any moves—or say anything—to make her think he disagreed with her going full broadcast.

  “I won’t sugar-coat this. We just got our asses handed to us. And you know what? We deserved that.”

  Now heads were coming up all over the saucer, staring at her in varying degrees of shock.

  “We deserved that, because we have been fighting these rat bastards for over a year, and if there is one thing we should have learned by now, it’s that you never, ever, become complacent, and never, ever, let your guard down. And what did we do? We got smug. We got complacent. We didn’t listen to the couple of people warning us, and we let our guard down. All of us. We. Fucked. Up.” Her voice hardened. “But we are, by God, not going to fuck up again.”

  She turned to Natalya. “Are we, Commissar Red Saviour?”

  Nat’s head snapped around and the Commissar stared at her blankly for a moment. Slowly, her face changed; the lines on her face disappeared, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a wolfish snarl.

  “Nyet, sestra! These nekulturny running dogs are thinking that we are beaten, now. That we are weak, contemptible. We have been. But no more! They will bleed for this, and it is us who will be making them bleed!”

  Those looks of shock were swiftly turning to something else. Hope, maybe? Certainly those around her had lost that despair, and she could feel the grief turning to anger.

  “I know you’re listening out there, you murdering bastards,” she growled. “So you listen to this. We’re homo sapiens. One race. One species. You’ve had it lucky up until now, because up until now, you’ve been fighting us piecemeal. Now, you’re going to face us as a united force. Now we know what you are, and how you act. Now we know never to let our guard down.”

  “Keep it up, Bells!” Vickie exclaimed. “You’re on rebroadcast everywhere, and…”

  Instead of Vickie telling, her, several views popped up in her HUD. ECHO HQ, and the metas gathered there were cheering. Crowds elsewhere, fists pumping, more cheering.…

  “You. Are. Dead. You just don’t know it yet. And we are going to find you, and we are going to dig you out of whatever hole you popped out of, and we are going to tear you apart before we stuff you back into it.” Her hands were clenched with anger, her face tight with it, and the Canadian general lying on the floor beside her was pounding the floor next to him with his uninjured hand, mouthing the word yes! over and over. “We are on fire with rage, and we never give up. We’re
not ‘norms’ and ‘metas’ and ‘Metisians’ anymore. We’re humanity, and you have officially pissed us off.” Gairdner was nodding encouragement at her, as the rest of the people in the saucer responded in their own way. Even the Metisians, who were showing the first signs of real fired-up emotion she had ever seen in them. “You’d better start feeling fear, you bastards, because you cannot imagine what we can do when we’re united. And we are not going to stop gunning for you until either the last of us or the last of you lies broken and bleeding on the ground. Our ground. Our world. And if you’ve got a way off it, now might be the time to take it, because otherwise you are all going to end up with our boots in your teeth and our knives twisting in your guts.”

  She glanced at the viewscreens again. You could barely see the spot in the Andes where Metis had been.

  “And as for Metis? Where you think you just got a big win?” Her lips lifted in a snarl. “You’d better think again, and think about running while you still have the chance. Because we’re coming back. Count on it. We’re coming. And we’re coming for you.”

  She signaled “wrap-up” with one finger in her visual field so Vickie would break off the broadcast. “Broadcast off, Bells,” Vickie confirmed.

  She continued to stare at the viewscreen, as the others around her rallied, and those that were able, began the scraps of plans, strategy, options. Calls were made to heads of state, the greatest military minds around the globe, to strategic reserves that had been preparing for a fight since the weeks after the Invasion. Trina and Vickie were kept busy opening comm links and fielding calls. She’d weigh in when they actually had something. For now…for now she’d do what she did best. Because the Kriegers did not know humanity. And she did.

  “Damn right,” she whispered, clenching her jaw. “We’re coming. And you will wish you had never been spawned.”